Did you see this? A video of more violence by cops at a UC campus a week ago

Screen capture from video at Daily Cal site shows police in riot gear confronting students at UC Riverside on Jan. 19, 2012.

Editor: Here’s some news that fell under the radar: police go on a violent rampage on another UC campus, injuring and arresting students. This was up at UC Riverside on Thursday, January 19th. Check out the video on the original site.

Police officers arrested two protesters and struck several others with plastic pellets during a demonstration Thursday [1/19/12] surrounding the UC Board of Regents meeting at UC Riverside.

The two individuals arrested — identified as Kenneth Ehrlich, 39, and Humberto Rivera, 25 — were booked on suspicion of felony assault on a police officer, according to Riverside campus spokesperson Kris Lovekin.

Nine police officers also sustained minor injuries, and about 11 people in the crowd suffered bruises from the pellets, Lovekin said.

For UC Riverside junior Stephen Fong, the protests on his campus marked a dramatic shift in the atmosphere of the student body.

Fong works in the Highlander Union Building, where Thursday’s meeting was held and where hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest tuition increases.

Going to work the morning of the meeting, Fong found himself sharing his elevator ride up with regents and his elevator ride down in the afternoon with riot police, watching as the mood of the protest became tenser as the crowd grew and more police officers arrived.

“I remember standing on this ledge, and everyone was chanting, and all of a sudden chants were turning into screams,” Fong said. “The whole mood changed almost instantly from chanting and protest to mayhem and chaos. I felt anxious, and … from that point on, everyone was afraid of the cops.”

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A thank you, y un abrasso to OBRag for your coverage of students standing up at U.C. campuses and beyond. keep it up, huge numbers need your honest reporting. We should clearly understand, our students protesting includes fee increases but they are by no means acting just for themselves. These student fighters are not self serving or self centered. They know full well what’s at stake and are courageously not backing down. They are treading in harms way…that’s courage.
We all kn0w, the entire Board of Regents has to go, along with every chancellor. This is just for starters. Cops off campus, now, is the correct slogan and goal. They are a clear and present danger to our youth and bystanders As for the toxic waste intellectuals and political pimps for the 1% who have never represented students, they too need to go. Who in their right mind can argue otherwise?
The entire UC system is a hoax, as is their administrators. This country has been at war since these student were in kindergarten. What does that say? What does that mean? Exactly what we are witnessing at every UC campus. Young intelligent humans refusing not only more debt but linking with each other to condemn the enemies of education. Who cares about nobel war prizes? Only the 1% and their military industrial complex geared to ripen their economy (black mail employment) for their investors.
Every California governor, senator, assembyperson is the same, whether Black, Brown, Female, Gay or Straight. The people didn’t learn the lesson of the first jerry brown administration. Why is anyone surprised now? Quick fix voting and all the initiatives placed on the ballots are phony diversions. Name one progressive lasting acheivement of senor j. brown..now he’s back, with a vengence. Hint, it’s not about whose governor or the assembly when they all feed at the same trough. It’s about their system that keeps us out and on the dole–this is true in Europe, Canada, Africa, the Americas and “communist (state capitalist) China” for that matter.
Voters actually volunteer to be robbed ( some even dare to criticize refusenik (new word, old definiion, non-sheep)–we are not talking about the sluts and wonder boys from Beverly Hills, La Jolla, Menlo Atherton, Del Mar, Pebble Beach, Carmel, Palo Alto, Bohemian Grove Nob Hill or Coranado, and so many other enclaves–we are talking about wage earners, workers not investors.
So, governor raygun is not deceased, he’s been sighted all over the state and the mansion, remember the mansion fiasco and some thing about austerity and moonbeams, is occupied, just a guess.
First, get independent, enjoy the clean air and the political healing and stop making the same mistakes–it’s the only way to help our brave and learned students. We have nothing to lose but the chains to the rigged two party system.
rick trujillo

Rick T. I’m not here to advocate for Gov. Moonbeam. But you asked for one progressive move he ever made. Well, I’m not sure how progressive most people view it. I kind liked SB 42 in 1977. Also known as The Determinant Sentencing Act. I ended “LIFE” terms for most non-fatallity felonies. At that time I was sitting in San Quentin with a one-year to life sentence waiting to go to the parole board for and detailed explanation of my sentence. Which could have been in the range of 1 year to (yeah, you guessed it) life. There were guys inside with my offence. 2nd degree robbery,with over fifteen years inside. So, when I was released after only a few years.74 to 77.I was sure stoked. Also, in 74 I was on the very first bus to the Guidance Center at C.I.M. Chino who didn’t have to get our hair whacked off. Would these things qualify as “Progressive”?

Foreign student tuition at UC Berkeley (UCB) is subsidized in the guise of diversity while instate student tuition/fees are doubled. UCB Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau displaces Californians qualified for public UCB with a $50,600 payment from foreign students.

UC Berkeley is not increasing enrollment. Birgeneau accepts $50,600 foreign students and displaces qualified instate Californians (When depreciation of assets funded by Californians are in foreign and out of state tuition calculations, out of state and foreign tuition is more than $100,000 + and does NOT subsidize instate tuition). Like Coaches, Chancellors Who Do Not Measure Up Must Go: remove Birgeneau.

More recently, Chancellor Birgeneau’s campus police deployed violent baton jabs on students protesting Birgeneau’s tuition increases. The sky will not fall when Birgeneau and his $450,000 salary are ousted. Opinions make a difference; email UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu

The majority of funding for Berkley, UCLA, UCSD and a couple of other campuses comes from research grant money. The UC takes 50+% of the grant money before it is ever used for the work on the grant. The second most important source of funds and the funding for assets (buildings) is private donations. State tax money and tuition are small in comparison to these sources. UCLA’s business school has floated a plan to give up state aid and manage themselves without the state, using their own private donors.

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